With all the chemical and environmental loads we have on our bodies making any change helps. Soaps on the market are actually detergents while my homemade soaps are made with ORGANIC oils, ORGANIC additives and essential oils.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Have you ever tried a bar of old-fashioned handmade soap? Are you worried you will burn your skin or have scaly itchy dry skin when you hear of lye in handmade soap? Well, let me ease your fears and tell you exactly what real handmade soap is. Soap can not be made without lye. Oils and lye mix in a process called saponification resulting in soap. The soap cures for 24 hours and is ready to cut and there are then no traces of lye left. Soap is cured depending on the soap maker between 3-6 weeks. This lets the soap rest and harden. The longer it sets the harder and milder it becomes.

Now that is the short of it but there are many different oils and additives you can put into your soap. I basically use 5 ORGANIC oils, olive, coconut, sunflower, sweet almond & palm. The basic additives I use are ORGANIC cocoa butter, raw unfiltered Indiana honey, ORGANIC fresh ground oats, poppy seeds, and 100 % pure essential oils. I have made a bar of blueberry that is from a fragrance oil.
There are many differences in handmade soap and store bought soap. Handmade soap has tons of natural glycerin in it. Factory soap makers take the glycerin out to make lotions and skin creams which is why after a shower using store bought soap you have to put on lotion! Handmade soap leaves all the good stuff in it. Handmade soap uses no chemicals or detergents. Factory soap is mostly detergent and adds so many chemicals you would have to put each one into the Environmental Working Group database to find out the danger of each ingredient. Which is what I have done for you.

If you take a stroll down a Wal-Mart isle you will find many selections of bar soap. Dove, Olay, Ivory, Caress, Yardley of London, Camay, Canus Goat’s Milk, Tone, the options keep going. EWG rated all these soaps based on the ingredients in them. The scale ratings are 0-2 as low hazard, 3-6 moderate hazard and 7-10 high hazard. Now you understand we are rating hazardous to our health people!

We will look at just a couple of these ingredients. The fragrance used could cause neurotoxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity at a level of 8 on a scale of 0-10.
The synthetic form of Vitamin A which is retinyl palmitate has been shown to cause cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), biochemical or cellular level changes. Again at a risk level of 8 on a scale of 0-10.Now are you going to get cancer from using these products? Maybe we should be asking another question. Are you okay with moderately risking your health ever single time you shower?

I also looked up some soap companies with a rating of 0 and 1. I also listed if they were organic (OG) and the price per bar and ounce.By Valenti True Castile right near here in Shamburg, IL (Chicago area) rates a 0 at $7 for a 5oz bar/OGKiss My Face rates a 0 rates a 0 at $3.99 for an 8 oz bar NOT OGTrader Joes Oatmeal & Honey
Coastal Creations Oatmeal which is the face bar I use to use rates a 0 and is now $9 per 3.5oz and is NOT OGAubrey Organics Evening Primrose rates a 0 at $5.95 for a 4 oz bar and the only OG ingredient is the evening primrose oil!Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint rates a 1 at $4.49 for a 5oz bar/OG

We personally test our soaps on ourselves so we know it will be gentle to your skin. We also put in each ingredient at the EWG database and our soap rates a 0. You can also feel good about buying a bar because each recipe is thought out and each oil has different health benefits. Each bar is hand cut, weighed, stamped and wrapped. You are buying the best product we can provide for the best possible price.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

﻿This is the first soap recipe I made. My children and I were tested for allergies and found out that we are all sensitive to milk (yes, even raw) and wheat. I began trying to eliminate these things from our diet. I also began to research alternative things to use for our body care regimen to help our immune systems get a break to repair themselves. At this same time I started menopause and I started having breakouts on my chin and neck. I had been a faithful user of Dove sensitive soap for many years and I began to notice it just wasn't helping with my acne. I was told by a friend about a company who made a face soap with a 0 on the EWG scale. I tried them and loved their soaps. I started buying them and had my teenage son start using them and he noticed a difference. At the time I was paying $6 for a 3.5 oz bar but over the next few months they increased the price to $8 a bar. Plus I was paying $10 for shipping from California. We were also hooked on Dr. Bronner's Peppermint bar for the bath. So we were spending alot on soap and shipping. I am always trying to figure out how to do the things we do better or for less money so I began to read about soap making. Would you believe with our recent move God placed in my life a friend I knew from a while back who made soap! We talked and talked and I read more and read more. Made my first order of essential oils, bought oils, made it to Menard's to buy lye, round up my spare pots and measuring cups, watched a few videos and made my first batch of soap. I went by the ingredient list of the face soap I was using. It wasn't as creamy but when I washed my face, nothing happened. No break outs, no burning just fresh soft clean skin. I was hooked from that first bar of soap.

I have since made a batch of Cocoa Mint to replace Dr. Bronner's and several other favorites like Lavender Castile and Cocoa Butter & Almond.

I hope you will try my handmade soap and fall in love with the quality and love that goes into each batch.

Most soaps available in the store today are not really soaps at all, but detergents. Detergents are a petroleum based product, like gasoline and kerosene. Detergents tend to leave your skin feeling dry, itchy and tight. Certain ingredients in mass-marketed soap have been proven harmful to human health and can cause severe skin irritations in some people. Do your own research. Visit Environmental Working Group and find out how the products you use are rated. Take inventory of the things you use and see if there are better choices you can make. Even if only one thing at a time.

Handmade soaps offer so many options. There are different oils to use for different sensitivities. Additives can help with things like dry itchy skin, skin soother & acne to name a few. Don't forget the many aromatherapy benefits too. Lavender is calming while mint is exhilarating.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

There are only 3 more days to enter for a chance to win a bar of Peppermint Patty & a bar of Orange Creamsicle.

For all those friends out there that have already used my soap and left a comment on the face book page but come here to my blog and leave a comment under the soap that you like I will enter your name again! I am trying to combine everything here in the future.

After the giveaway I will be running a special Thank You to anyone who has bought or placed an order by Sunday May 15. If you have bought soap and refer a paying friend who orders after May 15 you will automatically receive a free bar of soap. That special will run the rest of the month of May.

Soap scents for the week of May 16 are:

Blueberry (the only one I make with fragrance oil)
Honey N Oats (the bar that began my passion for handmade soap)

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Here is the latest newsletter from EWG. Just another reason why it is so important to know what is in what you put on your skin. If you can wear a patch for birth control, hormones, nicotine addiction, heart medications what ever you put on your skin enters your blood stream. I only use nutritionally healthy organic oils, organic additives that are good for your body like beeswax, raw local unfiltered honey, reverse osmosis water, organic oatmeal, cocoa butter, almond oil and essential oils to name a few.

Dear Angela,Myth: If the store sells it, it must be safe.Fact: The government has no authority to require companies to test personal care products for safety before they reach the store shelf.
This is not news to you, because you rely on Skin Deep to guide you to safer choices that help protect your family from chemicals that could be harmful.But do you ever stop and think; shouldn't the government be looking out for us?Click here to sign EWG Action Fund's Safe Cosmetics petition. It's time for Congress to take action and make sure that personal care products are safe for our families.
Right now, the industry can use almost any ingredient in its products without testing it for safety. And at a time when some people are applying more than 100 different ingredients every single day, it's important to make sure they're safe before they reach the market -- and our skin.
The industry's self-policing panel, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, hasn't bothered to evaluate more than half of the thousands of ingredients that companies put in their products. And the government stays out of it.
But EWG doesn't. We're looking into these chemicals -- and you won't like what we've found. Our research suggests that 22 percent of all personal care products, including those made for children's use, may contain the cancer-causing contaminant, 1,4-Dioxane. Vitamin A added to sunscreens speeds the growth of skin tumors. Cancer-causing formaldehyde shows up in hair straighteners. Labels vaguely cite "fragrance," a catchall term for undisclosed blends of ingredients. Studies have even found lead in some lipsticks.Congress needs to take action today. Tell our lawmakers not to leave you, your family and all consumers unprotected.

Hey guys! I am giving away 2 free bars of homemade natural soap on my blog Sunday. Only 5 days left to enter.
1. Become a follower on the blog for an entry into the drawing.
2. Post it to your facebook page for another entry
3. Share with a friend for another entry
4. Place an order for an entry

Prize will be a huge bar of Peppermint Patty and a huge bar of Orange Creamsicle. Both smell like the real thing and I now use organic oils!

Wanna win 2 free bars of soap? The rules are simple. You can enter your name as many times as you participate. Give away will end Sunday May 15.

Here are the ways:
1. Become a follower of my soap blog
2. Like my soap facebook page for Hen and Chicks Soap (hit the facebook link at the top of my blog)
3. Have a friend become a follower of my soap blog
4. Have a friend like my soap facebook page for Hen and Chicks Soap
5. If you have used my soap leave a comment on my soap blog
6. Place an order this week
7. Have a friend place an order this week

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I am a homeschool mom to 3 young men and enjoy being home. As they are getting older and are becoming more self sufficient I am finding more time on my hands. I talked to a friend who made soap and read many books on soap making. I started making soap and it quickly became a wonderful hobby and business opportunity.

Review by Jill's Home Remedies

It has a wonderfully mild scent, not offensive or perfume-y like commercial bar soap. It lathers beautifully and washes off cleanly. This is good stuff, folks! ~ Jill

Review by Linda's Lunacy

The Oats and Honey soap has great fragrance, you can smell both the oats and the honey, but it is not an overwhelming fragrance. That would make it a perfect soap for a man, too.
My skin is definitely softer than it was before I started using this soap. This would be an awesome soap for dried, cracked winter hands. ~ Linda

Review by Raising Mighty Arrows

WOW! I LOVE it! It lathers and rinses well, smells GREAT, and made me feel a lot cleaner knowing that it is all natural.~ Heather

Review by Living Beautifully Simple

Angela's soaps are made from organic oils, additives and essential oils! So not only do they smell wonderful, they are wonderful for you! ~ Rachel